EVE General Discussion

Look, I like the book. I even assign it to my students in my software development class. But CCP, your amateurish implementation of its ideas is getting to the point of making it laughable. You've got me wondering if perhaps the whole theory is just a San Francisco fad.

How many users are seeing the button at the top left of this screen that says "Try Beta Forums" and, when you click it, instead of actually taking you to any kind of forum beta it seems to launch a javascript that tracks where you click on the screen? I guess they're doing something like what CrazyEgg does -- generating click maps to learn about the UI effectiveness. This is the "fake it before you make it" idea, where apparently the goal isn't to test some non-existent forum beta, but instead to gather statistics on how many members would be interested in such a thing, simply by counting clicks.

Since we're on the topic, let's also talk about the A/B split testing CCP is doing with the new player experience. Guys, split testing doesn't mean that literally 50% of users get the beta NPE and 50% get the existing NPE. You can do A/B testing with 5% or even 1% of your new customers seeing the new experience. You just need a few hundred people to get meaningful statistics, and even fewer to give qualitative feedback, so you don't alienate thousands of potential users with untested technology.

I like the use of Agile development, and the continuous delivery of new features. But let's also apply some common business sense and think about the customer! The HBO show "Silicon Valley" is filmed as a comedy for a reason.

I suspect there's a bitter person who has no fun in his life
and thinks he knows what's best.

Try chocolate.

Or a life.

I love April 1st.

I was pretty disappointed in how the egg on my breakfast sandwich was implemented.

I guess I should have been doing A/B testing on scrambled vs fried.

OK, they got me. I have "liked" all of you who have zinged me for it.

But I'm still right about the A/B testing of the NPE.
And don't tell me they aren't running the business on The Lean Startup.

Meta April fool?


Rather like Agile, except people started taking that seriously.

That's hilarious. "The more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up." -Scotty-